The Crips gang was first founded in 1969 by Stanley “Tookie” Williams and Raymond Washington. To date it is one of the most popular street gangs with a reported 30,000-35,000 active members in the United States. The gang was primarily an African American based gang but is not limited to, there are members of all races and nationalities.
The primary gang color is blue often represented by carrying around blue bandannas, also known as “blue rags” or “blue flags. Most clothing owned is in a shade of blue whether it be a blue sports jersey or blue dickies shorts. Some Crips have tattoos representing their gang. The primary rival gang to the Crips and the Bloods. When writing, anything with the letter “B” in it is replaces with a “C” or if having to write the letter “B” being in a name or something they cannot change a line is placed up and down between the “B. It is also common to see “BK” written out which stands for “Blood Killer”. You can also often hear “C’s up, B’s down”.
Of the over 30,000 individual Crips members the groups are divided into sets. There are approximately 800 different sets that can be linked to each other all over the country. Some well known sets are “Rollin 60’s” and “Hoover Crips”. States with the highest number on known Crips are California, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Gang signs are connected within gangs. The Crips hand gang sign is often thrown up as a “C”. Certain sets have a certain sign they throw up but it all comes back down to the basic “C” to represent them all. Another common gang sign thrown up by the Crips is with 1 hand positioning their fingers to show “BK”. The Crips have a lot of their own slang such as “Slob” which they say when referring to the Bloods. “Cuzz” or “Cu” is used when talking to other affiliates of their gang.
The “Crip Walk” also known as the “C Walk” is a dance that was created in the 1970s by Crip gang members. The dance consists of rotating and shifting the heel and back of your foot in a “V” type motion. The shuffle motion of the “V” is also used to spell out the word “Crip”. The Crips also have a way with their hands called “Stacking”. Stacking is a fast way of showing messages and twisting gang signs. It is known as a art of expression to Crips members. You can find many videos on Youtube that feature Crip stacking.
Notable famous Crip and former Crip members include rapper Snoop Dogg who was affiliated with “Rollin 20’s. Rapper Ice T was once apart of the Hoover Crips. Coolio was affiliated with Corner Pocket Crips. Rapper Eazy-E who died in 1995 of Aids, was in the Kelly Park Compton Crips. Rapper Warren G was also affiliated with “Rollin 20’s”. Tupac Shakur was also noted to be affiliated with both Bloods and Crips at different times, but was never officially apart of either gang.
Crips founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams, also known as “King Crip” was convicted of 4 murders in 1979 and received the death sentence in California. The remainder of his life in prison he became a gang advocate and author writing several books on anti-gang themes and anti-violence. He was executed by lethal injection in 2005.
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Street Gangs
